Frequently, many different animals, especially dogs and cats, require capture, handling, training, grooming, medical treatment, or other care. Most commonly, such animals require veterinary check-ups, immunizations, and/or treatment for various diseases or injury. In these situations, animals often become nervous, agitated, fractious, or aggressive, making them difficult to control, and in some cases, dangerous. The animals may lash out and bite, causing severe injuries to a person or persons such as owners, handlers, groomers, trainers, police officers, wardens, zookeepers, and/or veterinary personnel. In order to protect themselves from such injuries, people can apply muzzles to these fractious and aggressive animals. Such muzzles are known in the prior art.
The muzzles of the prior art typically comprise a mouth-encircling portion that covers the animal's snout, allowing only a limited amount of movement of the animal's jaws, and at least one strap extending longitudinally from one end of the mouth-encircling portion that encircles the animal's head to secure the muzzle in place on the animal. Examples of such muzzles include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,474,303 (Veres), U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,428 (Wilkinson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,086 (Schenck), U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,659 (Helphrey), U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,984 (Askinasi), U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,929 (Michunovich), U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,529 (Zelinger), U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,531 (Dietz), U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,030 (Paglericcio, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,008 (Liu), U.S. Pat. No. 7,891,321 (Slank), and U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,224 (Taylor), the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.
While the muzzles described in these patents are usually effective in preventing a nervous, agitated, fractious, or aggressive animal from having the freedom to open its mouth wide enough to bite or otherwise injure people, the act of applying the muzzle to such an animal is potentially hazardous for the user. In order to place a muzzle according to the prior art on an animal, a person must grasp the mouth-encircling portion or the strap or straps extending from the mouth-encircling portion and pull the mouth-encircling portion over the animal's snout before securing the muzzle to the animal's head by fastening the strap or straps behind the animal's head. The strap or straps extending from the mouth-encircling portion are necessarily short and flexible, and the person placing the muzzle must bring their hands very close to the animal's mouth in order to properly secure the muzzle in place. This is typically an easy and safe task if the animal is calm, sedated, and/or is familiar with wearing such a device. However, if the animal is nervous, agitated, fractious, or aggressive, applying a muzzle exposes the person to injury if he or she is bitten by the animal. Furthermore, even after the person has applied the muzzle to the snout of the animal, he or she is still in danger if the animal lurches or twists out of the mouth-encircling portion applied to its snout before the strap or straps are securely fastened behind the animal's head.
Capture sticks comprising rigid poles with a loop of rope or wire have been used to capture a fractious or aggressive animal by ensnaring the animal's head. However, these types of devices are often ineffective because they do not secure the animal's mouth; they can choke and frighten the animal causing them to struggle, lurch about, and try to escape the device possibly biting the person or persons trying to handle the animal; or they can even cause injury to the animal itself. Consequently, many pet owners object to the use of these types of devices. U.S. Pat. No. 8,176,878 (Wexler), uses a capture stick with a opaque hood to cover the animal's head in an attempt to secure and calm the animal, but this method does not secure the its mouth and makes it difficult to examine the animal's eyes, ears, snout, and head. This method is also obstructive for applying a muzzle because the hood must be removed or loosened to position the muzzle and secure it to the animal's head, exposing the person or persons attempting to apply the muzzle to bites or serious injuries.
None of the muzzles described in the prior art address the prevention of injury to a person or persons while placing a muzzle on a nervous, agitated, fractious, or aggressive animal. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved muzzle which is simple and safe to apply to a said animal in need of capture, handling, training, grooming, medical treatment, or other care.